If It’s Got To Be Its Down To Me!

When you talk about Accountability, its often perceived that we are talking about holding others accountable, we’re talking about Leaders ensuring that people do what they should be doing.

And it’s true, that is part of it.

But to me accountability is about taking ownership of the outcome, and that applies to leaders running large organisations and also to individuals running their own businesses or looking to achieve personal goals.

If we want to hold other people accountable for our success then we have tried delegate accountability, but that doesn’t work. We can delegate responsibility for execution, but we are still accountable for the outcome.

We cannot blame the coach down the gym for not helping us lose the weight we were planning to lose. Sure they might have come up with the plan, but we still have to do the exercises and control what we eat.

When we start to delegate accountability, what we are really doing is looking for someone to blame when things don’t go as well as planned.

I have just terminated an agreement, I wasn’t getting out of it what was agreed.

But part of the problem was me, I didn’t insist on getting what I wanted, I didn’t put enough into the situation to get out what I wanted. I was just as much to blame as the other party.  I didn’t set clear milestones of what needed to be done by when, I just left them to get on with out. Now that they have failed its not just them, I probably didn’t make them aware of how important it was for me, which is my fault.

We have to own our outcomes, that’s what accountability is all about it.

That’s what makes the difference between success and failure.

So if you want to achieve more, be more, do more, then you need to take ownership and be accountable.

There are many things I don’t like to do, I am not big on networking or sales, but if I want to be successful then it has to be done.

I often talk about quotes I love, but today I’m going to mention one I don’t like at all.

I wish it wasn’t true, but it is, and that quote is If it’s going to be, then it’s down to me.

This is my reminder of my role in the outcomes I am looking for.